orld, the couple in business and love are primed to take Monaghan’s business expertise and Collinson-Smith’s artistic visions to the world, with the business already making waves in the US and Australia. Inside Retail: Why and how did you get into retail? Rebecca Collinson-Smith: I was an interior designer for about 10-15 years before I started my own business. The only retail experience I had was working in my parent’s art gallery and antique store. When I was little, I would always follow them around and have my card table set up, where I would sell my old toys and things that I had acquired. Fast-forward and I just fell in love with this little store in The Rocks, which was an online booking centre at the time. During this time I had a pop-up on George Street in Sydney, which lasted for about six months and enabled me to get the lease of my current shop in The Rocks, as they wanted to put in more artisanal stores. I’ve been there since 2019; that was a very interesting year to open a retail store. That year, we had the horrific bushfires that caused absolute devastation. Tourists would travel to the city and the visibility was so bad you couldn’t see the Sydney Harbour Bridge from where we were. Then, shortly after, we had the Covid-19 pandemic and all the restrictions surrounding that. So I’ve only had two proper years being able to operate the Hunting Hue store, but I’m still there and thriving through that. I have a great team of girls working with me now as I am travelling a lot with Eloise and we’re changing up the collections quite a bit because every piece of Hunting Hue is unique. We launched the Icons of Sydney collection with an event at the Bondi Icebergs at the end of last year. I love Sydney and this is an expression of this, with the wearable art in the form of swimsuits and accessories I create through Hunting Hue. Even just catching the ferry, I’m inspired and want to take my camera out; I’ve seen The Opera House and Harbour Bridge many times before, yet I still feel like a tourist in my own city. IR: How did you and Eloise meet? RCS: El came into my store as a customer (she has impeccable taste), and then I reached out and said, “I’d love to pick your brain about business.” We went for a drink, and then here we are. IR: How have you positioned Hunting Hue, and how do you plan to scale the business commercially? RCS: It’s a wearable memory. The swimwear collections are limited runs and have women’s, children’s and men’s styles. Miami Swim Week drove the creation of a larger collection, as I had to produce eight different looks, with eight different prints. I went a little bit crazy with that and did have a bigger volume of stock with those collections because of that. However, each piece is still different; for example, you might have the same bikini design within the collection, but regardless of size, etc, they are all different because of the print placement; no two pieces are the same. They’re all their own work of art, which makes it fun. A lot of girls come in and want the same piece, and love that it looks completely different, but still matches in a way. IR: Who is the Hunting Hue customer? RCS: Everyone: women, children and men. A lot of families love the ‘matching, but not matching’ element that Hunting Hue delivers in a very chic way. We have a lot of Japanese clients and our French clients love the silks. Generally, our Japanese and South Korean clients love the pocket squares and larger silks and Americans gravitate towards the swimmer. The silk pillowcases are also a popular product in-store; I find the imagery doesn’t really resonate on these until you see them in person. IR: What’s the career legacy you want to have? And how does Hunting Hue fit into this? RCS: Hunting Hue is a vessel for me to continue to be creative with my art and photography, and have people connect with that. It’s not always a memory of where they’ve been; it can be a manifestation of where they want to travel and explore. IR: What has Hunting Hue’s retail journey looked like? RCS: I’ve loved the journey from online to in-person retailing. The store in The Rocks is heritage-listed, meaning I couldn’t drill into certain areas for the shop fit-out and I just dived in without really thinking about the interiors too much. Now, I’m reassessing how best to display the product and redesign the interior store space. IR: Is another store on the cards for now? RCS: Yes, absolutely. I’d love another store in Sydney, and I believe there is a market for it. No one else is really doing the wearable pictures – especially in this way, to this quality, within the swim and silks niche. IR: What’s next? RCS: I am working on creating more clothing – silk shirts especially, as I wear them all the time – but the store is too small to stock the full range of what I want to do. IR: How are you tapping into travel retail and other customer demographics? RCS: With the silks, you can frame them as opposed to wearing them; there are a lot of these that are framed. Especially when people are travelling: if they can’t take a traditional print piece of artwork with them, the silk packs down easily and then they can frame it when they get to their property or their destination. This story first appeared in the February 2025 issue of Inside Retail Australia magazine.